UFC news: Dana White plans to top George Kambosos fight crowd with Aussie summer blockbuster

Dana White has huge plans for Australia – and it will start this coming summer. Find out what the blockbuster event in our own backyard could look like.

HOUSTON, TEXAS – FEBRUARY 12: (L-R) Tai Tuivasa of Australia walks off after knocking out Derrick Lewis in their heavyweight fight during the UFC 271 event at Toyota Center on February 12, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)

UFC president Dana White is ready to bring big fights back to Australia – with talks already underway for a possible summer blockbuster that could see Robert Whittaker, Alexander Volkanovski or even Mt Druitt slugger Tai Tuivasa headlining before the largest fight crowd ever Down Under.

Only days after 40,000 fans descended on Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium to watch George Kambosos try, unsuccessfully, to unify the lightweight division, News Corp can reveal UFC officials have opened talks for an Australia return, with February said to be among dates being discussed.

While Volkanovski is currently preparing to defend in a hyped trilogy bout against Max Holloway in Las Vegas on July 3, his management team spoke with the UFC on Sunday about a possible home soil headliner in 2023.

Volkanovski’s manager Lube Markovski confirmed the meeting with UFC executives prior to Kambosos’s world title fight in Melbourne, which the 33-year-old champ attended as a special guest.

Should the Wollongong native defeat Holloway for a third straight time at UFC 276 next month, talks will immediately turn to his first Australian headliner as champion.

Watch UFC 275: Teixeira v Prochazka LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo & Foxtel, Sunday 12th June from 12pm AEST. ORDER NOW >

UFC champ Alex Volkanovski at Blues training. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“There will be a card in Australia next year and the UFC wants Alex on there,” Markovski said on Tuesday. “I spoke with them on Sunday before the fight in Melbourne and they said dialogue is already underway.

“I’m told Dana White spoke with his guys here in Australia for 90 minutes last week, and for an hour of that conversation everything centred around Alex Volkanovski.

“So the UFC realises what he means down here. Realise what that fight would mean.

“Every champion wants to headline on home soil and it’s now time for Alex to get his turn.”

While the UFC has been kept out of Australia for over two years due to the Covid pandemic, it now appears a return is imminent with either Melbourne or Perth the early frontrunners to host.

Better, White could have no less than three championship options for top billing in Volkanovski, Tuivasa and Whittaker.

In September, UFC cult favourite Tuivasa is expected to headline the first ever UFC card on French soil, against hometown hero Ciryl Gane, while Whittaker fights Italian Marvin Vettori on the undercard.

Tai Tuivasa on his way to upsetting Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 in February. Carmen Mandato/Getty Images/AFP

Should the Sydney KO King win, he would be catapulted into a UFC heavyweight title fight, while Whittaker could win his way back into a trilogy showdown with middleweight champ, Adesanya.

Currently, Whittaker and Israel Adesanya hold the record for largest live crowd in UFC history, after 57,127 fans attended their first fight at UFC 243 in Melbourne.

That crowd broke the previous record, also set inside Marvel Stadium four years earlier, when Ronda Rousey was sensationally upset by Holly Holm at UFC 193, before 56,214 fans.

Both gates, coincidentally, beat the 51,000 who watched Australia’s boxing schoolteacher Jeff Horn upset Manny Pacquiao in 2017.

Another rising star who will this week be looking to fight his way onto any Australian card is Jack Della Maddalena, the breakout Perth welterweight White has already described as “special”.

After winning his UFC debut in January via KO, the 25-year-old now gets another chance to impress against Dagestani Ramazan Emeev at UFC 275 in Singapore this Sunday.

Robert Whittaker exchanges with Israel Adesanya at UFC 271. Carmen Mandato/Getty Images/AFP

Della Maddalena is one of four Australians fighting on the card, and will be joined by middleweight Jacob Malkoun, featherweight Josh Culibao and fellow welterweight Jake Matthews.

With travel restrictions now easing, it is understood at least 10 per cent of the Singapore crowd will be made up of Australians.

Whittaker will also be in attendance as a guest fighter.

Volkanovski, meanwhile, is set to once again disappear into preparations for his own title defence after attending the Kambosos fight and, days before that, spending time in camp with the NSW Origin team following a personal invitation from Blues coach Brad Fittler.

While the champ was also invited to Origin I by the NSWRL, he has politely declined, and will instead spend the afternoon training before watching the fight at home with family.

Volkanovski and his coach Joe Lopez will then head to New Zealand next week to continue preparations at City Kickboxing, the home gym of UFC champ and close mate Adesanya, who will headline UFC 276 against American Jared Cannonier.

Originally published as UFC news: Dana White plans to top George Kambosos fight crowd with Aussie summer blockbuster